Zoozoo
by hamforkam
Summary: My first real fic and the House crew are...animals?
1. Chapter 1

Summary: The animals in Roger Williams Zoo have never had it so good

_Summary:_ The animals in the zoo have never had it so good. The staff has noted that six of the animals are particular crowd pleasers. These creatures are pampered and adored by their fans! But there's one troubling thought that continuously nags at the back of their minds. They don't think like animals.

Déjà vu. The first time she got it, she dismissed it. She knew she wasn't supposed to have thoughts like these. She was designed to trot around her large zoo enclosure for the rest of her life. She was happy, so she shouldn't pay any mind to these thoughts. Still, they always came back. Again and again. Even worse, she found herself trying to form words towards the zookeepers.

"Come on, Mary!" they would coo, tossing a hunk of meat at her.

'That's not my name,' she thought irritably, and then she would ask herself why she thought that. Mary had been her name for nearly four years. She was part of an _elite _wolf breeding program in the zoo, brought in from the wilderness.

The most exciting part of it all was that she _knew_ she wasn't alone. Intelligent eyes surrounded her, and they didn't just belong to the zoo's visitors. She shared a biome with one of the meanest, brightest animals in the zoo. He was a red stag that towered above her, slightly grayed with age and with a limp in his hind leg.

A few years ago, she had approached him and clawed at the chain fence dividing their exhibits. He reared up on his hind legs, made a deer version of a grimace, and then pawed at the chain links with frustration. At the time, she thought he just wanted a piece of her. He was too bold for his own good, she had thought bitterly.

Now she entertained the thought that he just wanted to talk to her. And that time was coming soon enough.

It was an unusually hot day, but the zoo was packed to the brim. Mary had retreated to the back of her den to cool off and lazily watch the swarms of visitors. They were all trying to huddle around a patch of scrub enclosed in a cage, opposite of Mary's territory. Cameras flashed like crazy, and she even saw a few men lugging around extra large cameras on their shoulders. She had to wait until late at night to finally view what had interested the humans so much.

What greeted her was an unusual sight. A dog-like creature with tiger stripes and a stiff tail sat alone in its cage. When it yawned, she was startled by how wide the yawn was. She could see every tooth in his lower jaw. She would later learn that he was a "thylacine". People lined up by the hundreds to see him because he was supposedly the last of his kind. Apparently, some expedition had been launched to further explore Australia in hopes of discovering a mate. The fate of his species seemed very grim, Mary thought.

He looked directly across the path and at Mary's den. His eyes met hers and she felt a strange sensation. Recognition?

The next morning, she looked over into the scrub but could not see him. Instead, she focused her attentions on a more distant neighbor in the zoo. She could only see him from that distance because he was jet black and big. Obviously muscular, intimidating, he was alone in his cage like the thylacine. Mary had a few companions because she was a very social creature. This animal was not so. He was a panther that yowled at zookeepers during the night but never during the day.

He seemed just as friendly as any other creature in the zoo…at least when he had fans nearby. 'Cunning', Mary thought.

And when he spoke? Mary knew that he had to be the most intelligent cat she's ever met.

He was being led past her cage, no doubt to one of the animal shows on the other side of the zoo. Zookeepers cleared the way as little children admired his sheer size from afar. He suddenly lowered himself so that his belly scraped the dirt path. He looked directly at Mary and she understood every word he said. "Do you remember me?" And then he was yanked away by a woman on a tight time schedule.

At first, Mary thought he was just a little delusional from all that time he's spent alone in his exhibit. At night, she was tormented by the encounter. She had had dreams like this before, but she never was able to remember them in the morning. This one burned into her brain because it was an experience that she hoped she'd never have again.

She saw herself in a strange position. She was sitting _up_ on a seat. She was in a vehicle sort of like the golf carts that zipped along the dirt paths. This one had sides though, and lights that shone ahead of it and into infinity. Beside her was a human with…how could she describe it? Yellowish hair. His hands loosely gripped the wheel in front of him. She felt safe knowing that he was navigating their vehicle on the long stretch ahead of them. Something cut off the beams of light, and it was so sudden that she leaned back into her seat as far as she could go. She remembered the leather sticking to her sweat-soaked back after.

The man beside her had been nodding off, but he jerked awake when the deer planted itself stubbornly on the black path.

It was huge, and Mary knew that it wasn't going to go without tangling with the car.

The only thing the sleepy man could do was veer sharply to the left. The car pitched and rolled and tumbled…and Mary woke up. She was sure that she had dreamed of her death. But that made no sense…Her next assumption wasn't any more logical. She had been in peril, but she knew she hadn't died that day.

It was a typical summer afternoon. Mary had padded out of her den to watch the silly antics of her neighbors. A bear was chasing after the red stag, which was kicking a honey comb through the dirt in the exhibit. The crowd watching the scene was chuckling. She had seen it many times before, but she always found herself amused. The deer never even touched the honey. She just assumed that he enjoyed tormenting the bear.

She also knew that they had a strange friendship, and that was one major attraction in the zoo. She had seen the two sleep side by side on a few occasions. The bear regularly swatted at the deer's antlers, but he never took a bite out of him. Last but not least of her crazy "companions", Mary found herself checking up on a neat little fox that also lived with the stag. She was a pretty vixen that watched the bear and deer with obvious amusement. She could've sworn that she had seen the fox try to smile. And she found that these creatures could distract her from her troubling dreams. Though animals have shown foresight in the prediction of natural disasters, Mary was unable to predict the following day's events.

**Note:** Okay, so, there it is.  If you like it, please tell me and I'll continue it! It's my first real fic here, so flame away. It was a crazy little idea that popped into my head at 11:30. Right now, it doesn't seem very related to House. Just wait. I'll even throw in some medicine. ;D


	2. Chapter 2

It was pitch black, the moon hidden by angry storm clouds

It was pitch black, the moon hidden by angry storm clouds. So far, the zoo was only experiencing a slight drizzle, but the zookeepers were wary. Most of the animals had retreated into their dens and burrows, ready to wait out the approaching storm. It was the perfect night to do what needed to be done. The zookeepers had an exact schedule for the nighttime. They wandered from cage to cage, and Mary soon found herself able to predict just when the man with the flashlight would meander her way. She would pretend to be fast asleep because sometimes it brought a smile to the tired man's face.

Tonight's visit was definitely _not_ on the schedule, or on a schedule of any kind! The man had already checked the exhibits around her, so this intruder could not be human. The shadow was slinking towards her silently. But it must've known that she sensed it because it halted right before her. She shrunk back into the den, trying to gather the little light in her eyes. It was big. What was big and black and yowled softly?

A panther. Everything was black, but she was certain that it was him. She could smell it. "You didn't answer me."

Mary found herself unable to speak from the mild shock of the intrusion. After a few moments, she regained her composure and growled, "I don't know you."

The panther seemed to consider that as an answer, but then realized that the wolf had just said that to get him out of her home. "No, but you knew me once."

This was insane. It was late, and all she wanted to do was sleep…only to suffer another night terror. Could this all be related? No, no! Her mind always worked wildly like this. She hated it and somehow knew it was not normal.

"You are crazy. You've been cooked up in that cage of yours for so long, you're thinking like this. You should just go back before you get caught. Otherwise, they'll shoot a dart up your butt like Earl."

They both paused to remember an unfortunate rhino that ran farther than any other rhino has run before.

"Well, then we're equally crazy. After all, you can understand everything I'm saying. Don't you find that a bit odd?"

The wolf bit her lip. He did have a point. "Alright, speak and then leave."

The panther seemed relieved and quickly launched into his monologue.

"You and I are different from all of the others…well, not _all_ of the others…You've known that ever since you got here. I know you have nightmares. You shouldn't be afraid because I have them too. And they have helped me to understand. Don't wrinkle your nose, I'm sane. I was clever enough to escape my cage, wasn't I? There is a reason why we're so smart. We have a purpose, and that purpose revolves around that stag on the other side of the fence. All of us are kind of related. I'm surprised you don't recognize that thylacine over there. I didn't at first, but now I'm certain about who he is. We were all close."

The panther leaned back on its haunches and made a human face that startled Mary. It was a toothy grin.

"I don't know how, but we've started all over. No, that's not how I should put it…we're living again to save someone who we lost. Sounds cheesy, I know. We disappointed him greatly, and now we are given this chance to make it up to him. By him, I mean the stag…Err…You've died before, you know. Of course you know. I knew years ago…"

He noticed that the wolf was beginning to nod off to show her disinterest.

"Cameron!"

Her head snapped up, and her eyes grew wide. A million thoughts flashed through her mind at once, but she couldn't grasp any of them. Just like that, the feeling was gone. But it was there. "Cam…er…on."

"Your name. My name was For…e…man."

He had a slightly mocking tone, which she just couldn't stand. Okay, so he knew a BIT more than she did. Still, she didn't want to insult him. She suddenly wanted to know the rest of the story.

"We were obviously human once. That's why I love being around the people near my cage. I remember being around them…all of the time. I can understand their conversations too, and sometimes I just want to leap in! But I can't because that has nothing to do with our mission. House."

"A house?"

"No. The stag. His name is House."

'Cameron' found herself unable to argue with that. She never knew the name of the deer.

"And then there's Wilson and Cuddy."

Foreman seemed very proud of himself, and 'Cameron' was slightly impressed, though she had no idea what he was talking about.

"The bear is Wilson, the fox is Cuddy. It makes sense."

A voice sounded in the distance. "Do you hear something?"

Foreman rushed on with his story, "House was very sick once, and we were all there to help him…"

"They're coming straight this way," warned a voice from the scrub. The thylacine was awake, and his eyes reflected with a dim light through the rain.

Foreman's ears swiveled around to meet the new voice.

"I personally don't care if they get you or not, but I'd hate for them to make a scene. I'll never get to sleep," the large marsupial drawled.

Foreman blinked at Cameron knowingly before escaping her enclosure with a mighty leap and darting back towards his own.


End file.
